摘要
Menthol is used extensively in pharmaceutical and food preparations. These include liquors, confectionary, perfumes, cigarettes, tooth paste, bathing powder, and cough drops among others. This substance owes its popularity mainly to its characteristic cooling effect as well as its pleasant odour. Although most of the menthol used today still come from certain natural sources such as the peppermint oil (derived from Mentha arvensis), synthetic products of accepted quality have recently become a commodity of considerable quantity. The starting materials used for the synthesis of menthol have included various essential oil con stituents, such as piperitone, citronellal, α-pinene, pulegone, and limonene, together with m-cresol.
